INSTITUTE: Striking pair back for Seasiders encounter

The Waterside men, who travel to Bangor this Saturday (KO 3pm), haven’t won in the league on the road this campaign and Deery wants that record to end sooner rather than later.

In fact Stute have lost all four of the games away from Drumahoe this season, however and somewhat incredibly their only success on the road came last month when they knocked out Crusaders in the JBE League Cup.

“We need to improve our away form,” he insisted.

“We haven’t won in the league or even got a point. I know our only away win this season has been a really big one at Crusaders in the cup, but we need to sort our away form out in the league and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do on Saturday.

“We have been involved in a few strange games away from home.

“At Loughgall we totally dominated the match, missed chance after chance and ended up losing 1-0, I think it was the same at Knockbreda, missing chances and we lost 1-0 and those are the two main fixtures which stick out in my head.

“We were very poor away to Armagh, but outside of that we have been well in all our games away from Drumahoe but didn’t take our chances and lose the games, so it has been fine margins and maybe now with a bit more steel and guts about us I’m hoping we can get that wee rub of the green, which you need.”

Deery also feels that while the Seasiders haven’t really hit top form yet, they will be one of the sides challenging for promotion at the end of the season, nevertheless he’s looking forward to watching his team pit their wits at Clandeboye Park.

“I got to know Garth Scates really well when I was doing my badges. He was positive and while I think he has had to make cuts and adapt to things it’s maybe unfair to label them as one of the promotion contenders,” he said.

“Obviously they still have a strong enough squad to challenge and I’m sure Garth will be looking to push on in the league, so it’s going to be a tough game for us.

“To be honest our pitch was really disappointing on Saturday. It didn’t really suit us at all, the pitch was too bobbly and the grass was a wee bit long, but I think Bangor’s 3G surface will suit us as we want to get the ball down and pass it.”

Stute welcome back duo Robbie Hume and Garbhan Friel from suspension and Graham Crown also returns, but Gareth Brown misses out through suspension, while Dean Curry is still extremely doubtful with a knee problem and may not get the chance to come up against his brother Stephen.

Another man coming up against his old side will be defender Thomas Wray as he’s likely to feature in the Bangor side.